Top Angry Birds Knockoffs to Avoid

With Rovio's Bad Piggies rolling out today, you shouldn't have to look hard for more Angry Birds-style fun. But the knockoffs are out there, waiting. And they're bad.

About a year back, my wife, my 3-year-old son Aidan, and I were on a flight to Minnesota to visit her relatives. Aidan and my wife were on their way back from the lavatory when he caught sight of a woman playing Angry Birds on her tablet. Aidan was fascinated, as he had never seen a video game before. Obligingly, the woman let him watch.

Fast forward to today, and Aidan is an Angry Birds fanatic. We don't let him play for long stretches, as we'd much rather have him play with his trains and cars, and run around outside with the other kids. But the physics-based puzzler isn't a bad option as far as games go, and Aidan's to the point where he can at least get by most levels.

He's been bouncing up and down, waiting for Rovio's latest installment, Bad Piggies, which is set to be released today. (Unfortunately, my Android tablet is stuck in a perpetual reboot cycle, so we may have to use one of the Angry Birds cheat apps to get back to where we were if a reinstallation is required.)

Fortunately, the vast number of levels Rovio has supplied with Angry Birds, Angry Birds: Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, and Angry Birds: Space, combined with his limited playing time, has meant that Aidan has never quite run out of levels to play. That's fortunate, because otherwise I might have been tempted to let him play the numerous knockoffs out there.

And that's the thing - just as you might have been disappointed as a kid with generic toys, you'll probably want to avoid these Angry Birds knockoffs. Sure, maybe they're not true ripoffs; after all, even the big guys do it, and "match-3" games (like Angry Birds?) have evolved into a "genre."

Still, some of the game highlighted in our slideshow are pretty bad. And with floaty, clunky physics and uninspired design, you'd be better sticking with Rovio's originals.

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Angry Frogs

Angry Frogs

At least the developer of Angry Frogs appears to have tried to add a little innovation to his clone. Although the most innovative thing I saw was a bird frog that you could reorient in flight. Oh, wait - Angry Birds Space already did that.